Dr.Med., рrofessor of the Department of medical rehabilitation and adaptive physical culture Yu.K. Rodygina¹
Dr.Med., head of the Department of medical rehabilitation and adaptive physical culture A.A. Potapchuk¹
Dr.Med., рrofessor of the Department of physical methods of treatment and sports medicine S.V. Matveev¹
Dr.Med., professor, head of the Department of physical methods of treatment and sports medicine M.D. Didur¹
¹Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education “The First St. Petersburg State Medical University” named after academician I.P. Pavlov of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

Corresponding author: yurodygina@yandex.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to determine psychological and psycho-physiological features of girls during competitions at the start of their sports careers in order to obtain data about the dynamics of changes of these factors and developing guidelines regarding psychological training in women’s ice hockey.  

Methods and structure. In order to achieve our study aims we conducted psychological and psycho-physiological examination of 28 girls playing for the team SKA Aurora (St. Petersburg) (both the first and the second strings of players), average age 9,1 y.o., with up to 1 year exposure to ice hockey training.  In order to determine psychological and psycho-physiological factors of girls as compared to boys we conducted a comparative experiment with the participation of 17 boys – ice-hockey players, aged 8-9, born in 2009 (team SKA Strelna, St. Petersburg).

All techniques used were based on the computer software “Psychotest” by Neurosoft.

The paper discusses some important issues of women’s ice hockey. Ice hockey instructors working with children do not have enough knowledge about differential features of boys and girls who regularly play hockey, therefore the aim of our work was to determine psychological and psycho-physiological factors of female ice hockey players and delineate approaches to psychological training in women’s ice hockey at the start of a sports career. Psychological and psycho-physiological examination of twenty-eight girls playing for the SKA Aurora team (St. Petersburg) was conducted, аs well as the comparative experiment involving seventeen boys of the same age from the same sports club.

Results and conclusion. Standardized psychological techniques were used during the ascertaining experiment, which revealed that girls are less aggressive than boys (p<0,05), do not tend to be very competitive and aggressive in everyday life and on the hockey pitch. At the same time, they have a higher anxiety level, are more sensitive and introverted. The children from the two groups under comparison possess the same degree of emotional instability and motivational changeability. Inhibitory reactions prevail in psycho-physiological characteristics of girls-hockey players, at the level of high statistical significance compared to boys. Psychological training should be based on comprehensive positive reinforcement of achieved results, as well as the control of actual working capacity and the training aimed at the development of the degree of neural processes excitement.  

Keywords: women’s ice hockey, psychological and psycho-physiological factors of female ice hockey players, start of sports career.

Introduction. Women’s ice hockey is still gaining popularity in many Russian cities. It should be noted that in ice hockey girls do not have as many injuries as in figure skating, where they learn to move on ice without any protective gear. One feature of women’s ice hockey is that it does not involve a lot of fighting – on the contrary, success here is based on good skating skills, mental speed and agility.  However, psychological and psycho-physiological factors of female  ice hockey players, such as response speed, dynamic peculiarities of working capacity and reaction to competitive environment, have not been studied well enough, which makes our research quite relevant [1,3,4]. Coaches of women’s ice hockey teams do not have enough knowledge about girls’ peculiarities and very often transfer their techniques of working with boys onto girls, which leads to problems with psychological and pedagogical aspects of training and, eventually, to poor results in competitions [5].

Objective of the study was to determine psychological and psycho-physiological features of girls during competitions at the start of their sports careers in order to obtain data about the dynamics of changes of these factors and developing guidelines regarding psychological training in women’s ice hockey.  

Methods and structure. In order to achieve our study aims we conducted psychological and psycho-physiological examination of 28 girls playing for the team SKA Aurora (St. Petersburg) (both the first and the second strings of players), average age 9,1 y.o., with up to 1 year exposure to ice hockey training.  In order to determine psychological and psycho-physiological factors of girls as compared to boys we conducted a comparative experiment with the participation of 17 boys – ice-hockey players, aged 8-9, born in 2009 (team SKA Strelna, St. Petersburg).

The following techniques were used (all of them were based on the computer software “Psychotest” by Neurosoft): in order to determine psychological characteristics of girls ice-hockey players we used the individual typological questionnaire (L. Sobchik’s technique, children’s version); in order to assess psycho-physiological potential of girls starting their ice-hockey careers we used the computer version of the technique “Response to a moving object” (RMO), which reveals  accuracy and promptness  of sensomotor reactions, as well as the predominance of forestalling or retardation of a sensomotor reaction, which testifies to the predominance of  excitative and retardation processes in the central nervous system, correspondingly [2].

Results and discussion. The main psychological characteristics, reflecting the differences at the statistical significance level between boys and girls with regular ice hockey training, demonstrated that  girls (2,52 points) are less aggressive than boys (3,73 points), do not tend to be competitive and aggressive in everyday life and on the hockey pitch (figure 1); they are much more predictable (on the “spontaneity scale” girls score 2,57 and boys - 3,4 points). At the same time girls have higher anxiety and sensitivity levels, they are more introverted, susceptible and pessimistic about perspectives; they are more vulnerable and emotional. Boys and girls have equal degrees of temper uncertainty (emotional lability) and changeability of motivation for different types of activity (including sport).

Figure 1. Individual typological features of girls from ice-hockey team SKA “Aurora”, points

The results of our psycho-physiological study revealed that female ice hockey players have predominantly retarding neural processes, at the level of high statistical significance, as compared to boys (the average reaction time is 127 ms vs -57 ms (figure 2). The number of exact reactions is also more characteristic of boys. Also, males have nearly twice as many antedating reactions as females.

Figure 2. Psycho-physiological features of women’s ice hockey team SKA “Aurora”, points (ms, c.e.)

Based on the ratio of deferred and antedating reactions, a conclusion can be made that retardation processes prevail in the central nervous system of females. 

Conclusion. Our study revealed a high degree of motivational changeability in both groups – girls and boys–ice hockey players. When females start their ice hockey careers it is important to spark their interest in the selected sport, accentuating its positive aspects and counter-balancing the negative ones (risk of injury, necessity of tough physical contact, sophisticated sports gear). Females are more sensitive and anxious, which makes them very diligent and responsive to praise. Praise and positive socio-psychological background in women’s teams contribute to better results of women’s children and youth teams. At the start of players’ sports careers in women’s ice hockey teams actual working capacity must be controlled. Moreover, an optimal training mode should be selected in order to avoid over-training and exhaustion. 

References

1. Ilyin E.P. Psychophysiology of Human Conditions. St. Petersburg: Piter publ., 2005. 415 pp.
2. Marishchuk V.L., Bludov Yu.M., Serova L.К. Psychodiagnostics in Sports. Мoscow: Prosveshchenie publ., 2005. 349 p.
3. Mikhno L.V. [ed.] Russian Ice Hockey in the Changing World: from the Present through the Past to the Future. St. Petersburg: Aleteya publ., 2016. 384 p.
4. Safonov V.K. Aggression in Sports. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg State University Publ.. 2003. 159 p.
5. Stambulova N.B., Ryba T. V. Athletes’ Careers Across Cultures. Routledge. 2013. 288 p.